It’s hard to keep saying everything is fine when documents prove otherwise.

Although the General Services Administration continually denied knowledge of a "death list," investigative reporter Russ Ptacek discovered the list while working for Kansas City’s KSHB-TV. He continued the investigation at WUSA 9, in Washington, D.C.

It’s one thing to say African American entrepreneurs are recovering from the economic downturn slower than white entrepreneurs, it’s another to explain why. 

That’s what Washington Business Journal reporter Bryant Switzky did using a database from the Small Business Administration and other datasets related to the Community Reinvestment Act.

“The thing that struck me was that no one in the community or SBA had a good explanation as to why this happened,” Switzky said. “So I did a FOIA for a full database of all publically available SBA data going ...

Avoiding landmines when dealing with confidential sources was the focus of one of the panels highlighting a joint workshop held last week by IRE and the Canadian Association of Journalists.

More than 90 journalists gathered at the Ryerson University School of Journalism to learn more about key issues facing journalists on both sides of the border, from the environment and terrorism to using open records laws and finding relevant data online.

The confidential sources panel, featuring three journalists and a media lawyer, provided practical advice in how to deal fairly with sources who request confidentiality while not getting into legal ...

By Mark Horvit, IRE Executive Director

Nigel Jaquiss has  a strong but simple message for those who cover local government: "Do not be a stenographer." Jaquiss, a Pultizer Prize and IRE Award winning reporter for the Willamette Week in Portland, offered a series of recommendations to help those who cover local government do more than simply record the business of government. He spoke to more than 80 journalists and journalism students gathered for a recent Watchdog Workshop in Eugene, Ore. Jaquiss noted that government involves allocating three things: money, power and permission. Key things to track include:

• Who are the ...

By Doug Haddix, IRE training director

Reporters should make one to three calls a day to sources whom they don’t need for a deadline story. That’s the most effective way to develop sources who’ll come through for you later with ideas and help, according to Ryan Gabrielson of California Watch. Gabrielson spoke during an IRE Better Watchdog Workshop last weekend at San Francisco State University. He covers public safety issues at California Watch, a project of the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting. While working at the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Ariz., he and reporting partner Paul ...

By Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director

A couple of weeks ago, I was teaching at a computer-assisted reporting boot camp in San Diego. The class had been through spreadsheets and databases, and I was finally demonstrating how to deal with pdf's. After showing some online options, I walked the class through my old stand-by: XPDF.

If you've used it before, you know that once you get the hang of it, it's quite simple. But learning it for the first time can be a bit daunting, as it uses the command line. That's right, I said: The ...

By Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director

If you've ever been involved in an investigative story or in-depth project, you understand how important chronology can be. I’ve often sketched timelines on notebooks, napkins or white boards. For trickier tasks or more data, I've turned to Excel, but I've never been completely satisfied with how it works.

TimeFlow, released last week, just might change all that. Funded by Duke University, the minds behind this project include IRE Board member Sarah Cohen, Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenberg. It’s free and open source; you can find it here. To ...

By Doug Haddix, IRE training director

Time management can be a reporter’s biggest challenge when it comes to watchdog stories. During a recent Better Watchdog Workshop in Denver, two seasoned investigative journalists shared tips and tricks they’ve learned to make time for the big story. Advice and tips came from Raquel Rutledge of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Laura Frank of the I-News Network based in Denver. Rutledge drew examples from her “Cashing in on Kids” series about fraud in tax-subsidized day care – winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. Frank recalled lessons learned from her ...

By Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director

While oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the government is pouring resources into the cleanup effort. Track how much is being spent, which agencies are awarding it, and where it's going with data from the Federal Procurement Data System. The FPDS's Gulf Oil Spill Report, updated regularly, is downloadable in spreadsheet format. It contains contract information the FPDS has received. (The FPDS warns that there can be a lag in some reporting: "We believe it represents a portion of the work that has been awarded to date.")

Use this data ...